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10.2 Electromagnets
In the last section you learned about permanent magnets and magnetism. There is another type of
magnet, one that is created by electric current. This type of magnet is called an electromagnet. What is
an electromagnet? Why do magnets and electromagnets act the same way? In this section, you learn
about electromagnets and how they helped scientists explain all magnetism.
What is an electromagnet?
Searching for a For a long time, people thought about electricity and magnetism as different and
connection unrelated effects. Starting about the 18th century, scientists suspected that the two
were related. As scientists began to understand electricity better, they searched for
relationships between electricity and magnetism.
The principle of In 1819, Hans Christian ersted, the Danish physicist and chemist (1777-1851),
an electromagnet noticed that a current in a wire caused a compass needle to deflect. He had
discovered that moving electric charges create a magnetic field! A dedicated
teacher, he made this discovery while teaching his students at the University of
Copenhagen. He suspected there might be an effect and did the experiment for the
very first time in front of his class. With his discovery, ersted was the first to
identify the principle of an electromagnet.
How to make an Electromagnets are magnets that are created when there is electric current flowing
electromagnet in a wire. The simplest electromagnet uses a coil of wire, often wrapped around
some iron (figure 10.8). Because iron is magnetic, it concentrates the magnetic
field created by the current in the coil.
The north and The north and south poles of an electromagnet are located at each end of the coil
south poles of an (figure 10.8). Which end is the north pole depends on the direction of the electric
electromagnet current. When your fingers curl in the direction of current, your thumb points
toward the magnets north pole. This method of finding the magnetic poles is
called the right hand rule (figure 10.9). You can switch north and south by
reversing the direction of the current. This is a great advantage over permanent
magnets. You cant easily change the poles of a permanent magnet.
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Chapter 10
Applications of electromagnets
Current controls By changing the amount of current, you can easily change the strength of an
an electromagnet electromagnet or even turn its magnetism on and off. Electromagnets can also be
much stronger than permanent magnets because the electric current can be large.
For these reasons, electromagnets are used in many applications.
Magnetically Magnetically levitated (abbreviated to maglev) train technology uses
levitated trains electromagnetic force to lift a train a few inches above its track (figure 10.10). By
floating the train on a powerful magnetic field, the friction between wheels and
rails is eliminated. Maglev trains achieve high speeds using less power than a
normal train. In 1999, in Japan, a prototype five-car maglev train carrying 15
passengers reached a world-record speed of 552 kilometers (343 miles) per hour.
Maglev trains are now being developed and tested in Germany, Japan, and the
United States.
How does a
The sliding switch on a toaster does several things: First, it turns the heating
toaster work? circuit on. Secondly, it activates an electromagnet that then attracts a springloaded metal tray to the bottom of the toaster. When a timing device signals that
the bread has been toasting long enough, current to the electromagnet is cut off.
This releases the spring-loaded tray, which then pushes up on the bread so that it
pops out of the toaster.
How does an
electric doorbell
work?
10.2 Electromagnets
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Chapter 10
Building an electromagnet
Make an
electromagnet
from a nail and
wire
You can easily build an electromagnet from wire and a piece of iron, such as a
nail. Wrap the wire in many turns around the nail and connect a battery as shown
in figure 10.12. When current flows in the wire, the nail becomes a magnet. Use
the right hand rule to figure out which end of the nail is the north pole and which is
the south pole. To reverse north and south, reverse the connection to the battery,
making the current flow the opposite way.
Increase the You might expect that more current would make an electromagnet stronger. You
strength of an would be right, but there are two ways to increase the current.
electromagnet 1 You can apply more voltage by adding a second battery.
2 You can add more turns of wire around the nail.
Why adding turns The second method works because the magnetism in your electromagnet comes
works from the total amount of current flowing around the nail. If there is 1 amp of
current in the wire, each loop of wire adds 1 amp to the total amount that flows
around the nail. Ten loops of 1 amp each make 10 total amps flowing around. By
adding more turns, you use the same current over and over to get stronger
magnetism.
More turns also Of course, nothing comes for free. By adding more turns you also increase the
mean more resistance of your coil. Increasing the resistance makes the current a little lower
resistance and generates more heat. A good electromagnet is a balance between too much
resistance and having enough turns to get a strong enough magnet.
Factors affecting The magnetic force exerted by a simple electromagnet depends on three factors:
the force The amount of electric current in the wire.
The amount of iron or steel in the electromagnets core.
The number of turns in the coil.
In more sophisticated electromagnets, the shape, size, material in the core and
winding pattern of the coil also have an effect on the strength of the magnetic field
produced.
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Chapter 10
In magnetic materials (like iron), the atoms are free to rotate and align their
individual north and south poles. If you bring the north pole of a magnet near iron,
the south poles of all the iron atoms are attracted. Because they are free to move,
the iron near your magnet becomes a south pole and it attracts your magnet.
If you bring a south pole near iron, the opposite happens. The iron atoms nearest
your magnet align themselves to make a north pole, which also attracts your
magnet. This is why magnetic materials like iron always attract your magnet, and
never repel it, regardless of whether your test magnet approaches with its north or
south pole.
Nonmagnetic The atoms in nonmagnetic materials, like plastic, are not free to move and change
materials their magnetic orientation. That is why most objects are not affected by magnets.
10.2 Electromagnets
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Chapter 10
Moving magnets When a magnet moves into a coil of wire, it induces electric current to flow in the
make current flow coil (diagram above). The current stops if the magnet stops moving. If you pull the
magnet back out again, the current flows in the opposite direction.
Induction and Electromagnetic induction is how we transform mechanical energy (moving
energy magnets) into electrical energy. Any machine that causes magnets to move past
transformations coils of wire will generate electric currents. The same principle works for giant
electric power plants and also for the tiny sensors on computer disk drives.
Computers read data on a magnetic disk by looking at the pulses of current that are
generated as a high-speed disk spins past the coil of wire in the drives sensor head
(figure 10.16).
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Chapter 10
Generators make Because the magnetic field alternates from north to south as the
alternating current disk spins, generators produce alternating current (AC).
Remember, in the last chapter we learned that alternating current is
used in the electrical system in your home and school.
Energy is The electrical energy created from a generator isnt free. You have
conserved to do work to turn the disk and make the electric current flow.
Power plants contain a rotating machine called a turbine. The
turbine is kept turning by a flow of air heated by gas, oil, coal, or
nuclear energy. One kind of energy is transformed into another and
energy is conserved. The energy stored in the gas, oil, coal, or
nuclear fuel is transformed into the movement of the turning
turbine, which is then transformed into electrical energy.
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